I think normal is highly overrated around here. I think that if you polled all the regulars around here you would find that we all use a mishmash of what you said for diet.

I have never been able to do the zone because of travel and lack of a desire to measure every morsel of food I put in my mouth.

Paleo is my gig. I am not militant but stick to it mostly. I will throw IF in for a day here and there.

When I was on the mass gain plan I was eating my brains out. I never really had a huge increase in mass but over the last 9 months I ended up losing BF and putting on muscle. Who can complain with that.

I also think Paleo is much easier to eat in an environment where you are eating foods being served to you instead of cooking / measuring everything.

If you truly are going to have a go at mass gain be aware that you are going to have to quit basically all your metcon. Heavy Weights, Rest, Eat, Eat, Eat and more Eating are the only way to put on mass.

On another plus side, it is said that after a stunt at mass gain you will get your conditioning back rather quickly when jumping back to Metcon....